Kevin Portteus

Kevin Portteus joined the faculty of Hillsdale College in 2008 and is the Lawrence Fertig Professor of Politics and Director of American studies at Hillsdale.  He previously taught at Belmont Abbey College near Charlotte, NC and Mountain View College in Dallas, TX.  He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude from Ashland University, majoring in political science and mathematics, and took his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in politics from the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas.  His research interests are in the political thought of the early American republic, Congress, and the administrative state.  His work has appeared in numerous of scholarly and mainstream publications, including American Political Thought, The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, American Greatness, American Mind, The Federalist, Forbes, and Human Events. He is currently researching a book on the political thought of the South Carolina nullifier Robert J. Turnbull, and is writing an article on the origins of John C. Calhoun’s theory of concurrent majority.

Christina Wolbrecht

Christina Wolbrecht teaches and writes about American politics, political parties, women/gender and politics, and American political development. Wolbrecht's most recent book (with David E. Campbell) is See Jane Run: How Women Politicians Matter for Young People (Chicago 2025). She has written extensively on women voters after suffrage, including two books with J. Kevin Corder: A Century of Votes for Women: American Elections Since Suffrage (Cambridge 2020) and Counting Women’s Ballots: Female Voters from Suffrage Through the New Deal (Cambridge 2016). Both were recognized with the APSA's Victoria Schuck Award for the best book on women and politics. Her first book, The Politics of Women’s Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change (Princeton 2000), received the Leon Epstein Outstanding Book Award from the Political Organizations and Parties section of the APSA. She has published articles on topics including party change and women’s representation in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, and Political Behavior, among others. Wolbrecht is currently working on a project examining women’s access to local political power and on a new book investigating the impact of women’s suffrage on state legislative politics. She teaches undergraduate courses on American government, political parties, and gender, politics, & power, and as placement director, a graduate seminar on The Academic Career.

Donald Zinman

Donald Zinman has taught in the political science department at Grand Valley State University since 2006. His research interests include the presidency, political parties and American political development. He is the author of two books: The Heir Apparent Presidency (University Press of Kansas, 2016) and 1812: America’s First Wartime Election (University Press of Kansas, 2024). He has also published articles in White House Studies and Presidential Studies Quarterly.

Professor Zinman is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. He earned a B.A. in Politics from Brandeis University in 1998. He continued at the University of Texas at Austin, earning a Master’s in Government in 2004 and a Ph.D. in Government in 2006.